DARPA IMMERSE

IMMERSE is a US military funded program to simulate social interactions using the Unity game engine. As described by Dr. Joshua Allen McCoy:[1]

The goal of the project is to produce a game-based training environment that teaches people how interact as "good strangers" via practicing the skills necessary to have successful social interactions in unfamiliar languages and context. This will be accomplished via virtual dramatic scenarios, realized within the Unity game engine, in which the player interacts with computer-controlled autonomous characters in high-consequence social environments, learning how to quickly recognize and navigate the social interactions norms in these environments. We build upon the autonomous character and story management technologies successfully demonstrated in the interactive drama Façade, and the social simulation system successfully demonstrated in the experimental game Prom Week.

Organizations

Popido's conspiracy theory

Popido at the Escapist forums alleges that Zoe Quinn's friends are funded by DARPA through the IMMERSE project, based on DiGRA having posted a job announcement for IMMERSE and Maya Kramer having attended DiGRA.[9]